Should I quit Adderall?

[josh223]

Hey all I'm a 20 year old male college student. I have been taking Adderall for about 5 years now. However it was never a prescription until about 1.5 years ago.

First I was taking 25-30mg Adderall couple times a week. Then after I graduated high school my doc put me on Vyvanse. He wanted to try 50mg first but I said no I want to start with 20mg. Thank god I did.

Wow 20mg was WAYYYYY stronger than 60mg Adderall for me. I guess my body had lots of the enzymes to cleave the lysine off that good ol dexamphetamine.

Fell in love with Vyvanse, was FULL of energy All day. Working 2 jobs and taking 5 college classes at the same time. Pulled off straight A's thanks to the stuff.

Stupid decision, I went back to doc who was more than willing to up it to 60mg I said lets try 30mg now.

Woah this dose kicked my ass. I was soooo high from the stuff, my head was buzzing and I was in pure bliss. I vacuumed THE WHOLE house, did all of the dishes, did everyones laundry, cleaned my room, made my bed, sorted all of my papers constantly, excessively cleaned every day. Ate about an apple for the whole day every day thats about it. Getting 2 hours of sleep per night and feeling great I was also staying at school till the library closes every night working weeks ahead of schedule so far ahead I asked my teachers if I could work further ahead but they said no because I was going faster than the teachers!

Wow this continued for months, I was also the most productive worker, and most of all the other workers had worked there for 5-10 years or more and they didn't like me because the boss used me as an example because I was the most productive worker, and I had only been working there for 6 months lol.

I was still on 30mg dose, not abusing it or anything. I guess my body is just overly sensitive to this stuff.

About a year later the dose got ramped up to 50mg and things were good. Except my sleeping and eating were nearly nonexistent. Also had severe anxiety. Several panic attacks that month and told doc went back down to 40mg.

I stayed at 40mg for about half a year. It slowly got weaker and weaker. I went to another doctor and got Adderall 25mg prescription. Took this for a while and quit the vyvanse even though I was still being prescribed it.

I only decided to go to adderall because I have an extremely strong appetite while on it, which is weird most people dont. Anyways the 25mg helped keep withdrawals at bay, however things arent the same.

I peek and crash hard on adderall, unlike vyvanse however my appetite and sleep is normal.. grr Another thing is adderall does not work as well as vyvanse for me, focus, concentration, motivation etc all NEARLY gone. only time I do have that is between 8am and 4pm after the adderall wears off im worthless.

did this for a few months

Then on my own thought dumping half the powder from the vyvanse 40mg capsule and half the adderall pill into applesauce cup in the morning and eating that.

Basically 10-15mg Adderall and 20mg vyvanse per day. All at once first thing in morning

Wow this was perfect..

I had the benefits of adderall, without the peak and crash of the adderall. The vyvanse dose was low enough to be able to sleep at night and eat in day but high enough to get benefit from it.

For a while this was fine but now I just take the whole vyvanse and still dump half the powder from the adderall on days I need it.. I am not overproductive anymore, I have been lacking on homework, my room is a mess, I sleep 10+ hours a night (ok with me) and eat 4000 calories a day (still okay with me)

My fear is the direction I'm headed. I am sad the 30mg Vyvanse or adderall does not work as it used to but oh well

My goal is to quit. Now it's not that easy, i have tried before and all I do is sleep all day. Most I did was 2 days. I have school and work to do.. I cant slack forever. Its sad without my vyvanse pill no homework gets done, and when I am at work they send me home early because I'm (too slow) I work at a fast food lol

I did an experiment to see if it really was the vyvanse. for about a month I was working 3 days straight each weekend (friday/saturday/sunday) every week

I wanted to see if the vyvanse really impacted my work. In my experiment I decided to take the vyvanse on fridays and sundays and skip the saturdays.

Fridays and sundays went fine, but on saturdays they told me 6-7 times each shift I need to hurry up, one time the boss pulled me aside and asked why I was not performing. I just told her I had a headache and a long day. These days were like this each time I did not take the pill.

anyways I'm back to taking 1 pill a day and half adderall on days I work or have chemistry class.

I am scared because each month the effect of vyvanse is getting worse yet I try to quit and my body is WAYYY WORSE and withdrawals are brutal. I have heard of them lasting 2 months... I don't want to lose my job or fail my classes. I came up with an idea what do you guys think?

I think I will try not taking the pills on days I don't work/school to lower the tolerance. But continue to take the pills each day. Then at the end of the semester I'm going to be quitting my job anyways and car will be paid off so I wont need to work anyways. SO I was thinking of quitting taking Adderall and Vyvanse at the beginning of summer.

I am not doing anything all summer and will be able to eat and sleep every day without a single responsibility lol,

Will this be possible? Enough time to get back to normal? Will I ever get back to normal? How bad are withdrawals? What symptoms will I get other than increased hunger and tiredness?

I just hope that this will be enough time to have my tolerence go away for the next school semester. My plan is to also only take for school and not for work. Once I start back on it next year, and to also take weekends off to prevent tolerance from happening.

Thanks all

[Greg]

Hey Josh,

When you try to quit and you can't because you sleep all the time without it - it's definitely time to get off that stuff. I think it even says that in the warning directions that come with pill. I had the same problem. I can guarantee you that if you don't stop, the 'sleeping when you're not on it' issue gets worse and worse. You're body only starts leaning on it more and more for your energy. Your inability to stay awake without it gets worse.

A lot of us who get addicted to this stuff thought it was the answers to all of our problems when we first started taking it. It seems like that mentality is a big recipe for disaster. Really, try to get rid of it. I used to call it a 'miracle pill' because it made me accomplish everything. In time, I prayed for a miracle to get off of stimulants because I was so addicted to them. I know some people who take adderall but are not addicted to it. They don't seem to really care about the medication so much either way. It seems to me people who tend to get addicted are really enthusiastic about stimulants when they start on them...

Also, mixing highly addictive medications is terrible. Breaking the adderall open and then combining it with Vyvanese is really bad. Probably not the answer you want to hear. I used to combine taking stimulants. Not only did I start getting more addicted to them, but it really started messing with my mind. Eventually, I was chewing the capsules and snorting them most of the time. I also found adderall and vyvanese to be equally as addictive.

You're walking a fine line now - just imagine a continued future where you can't have enough energy without resorting to a pill? And imagine it getting worse from here on out. Imagine trying to get to work but worrying about your next refill first and foremost. There were a lot of days when I was worried how I was going to make it through the day - awake - without my pills. And so I called in sick instead so I could sleep. Then got in trouble for calling in sick too much.

You said you're worried about what direction this is all headed. It seems that right now, you are dealing with tolerance issues, sleeping issues, and toying around with your dosages. If you don't have a problem, then stopping shouldn't be a big deal for you. Is it? If it is problem, do you really want to be starting back up again, even if you manage to take a break from it?

[Alliee]

I think you should quit. It makes people crazy.

[quit-once]

"once I start back on it next year....."

By ending your post with this statement, you have made it clear that you do not intend to quit adderall no matter what anybody here tries to tell you. You may be able to temporarily lower your tollerance by not using (for AT LEAST three days straight), but eventually, THE ADDICTION WILL KICK YOUR ASS.

[Cassie]

You said you will have no responsibilities with regards to work or school this summer - that sounds like the perfect time to quit Adderall. I wish I would have quit three years ago while I was in between jobs, instead of three months ago while I had (and still have) a full time job with a horrendously long daily commute. The problem was that three years ago I didn't even realize I was addicted to Adderall. I knew I was dependent on some level, that I needed it to function every day, but I didn't clearly see the problems Adderall was causing me until much later. I still kick myself for not seeing it sooner and quitting during the seven months I was unemployed. Sure, I was going to graduate school at the time, but it would have been so much easier to quit without the burden and boredom of a 9-5 job, because that's the environment that makes me crave Adderall the most.

It sounds like you already see the harm Adderall/Vyvanse is causing you. If you quit this summer while you have this ideal opportunity of being work and school-free, you can save yourself a lot of pain several years down the road, when you want to quit again but are shouldering more responsibility. Or you can take the summer off, go back on Vyvanse, and find yourself in the same predicament next summer. Keep in mind how quickly the body builds tolerance to amphetamines. Any 'reset' to your tolerance level is going to be very short-lived.

[Alliee]

I agree with cassie. I don't even remember writing what I posted earlier. Don't quit in the middle of everything. Don't take more than your prescribed dose, though. You shouldn't quit anything cold turkey. You will go through withdrawls probably, especially with the doses you've been experiencing. YOu will be exhausted, moody, depressed. withdrawl can be awful. You need to give your brain at least a month to go through all of these bad withdrawl symptoms. It might take 6 months to be completely back to normal. But, you should titrate off... expect a month to recover.. but with titrating you might not need a month. Good luck with everything. Wait to stop everything. Don't take more than you need. Figure out what you need to get by and do that. Don't take more and more to chase a dopamine high, that's the trap right there. That will end up making you disfunctional but you won't really feel ashamed because you are too out of it, right? Take what is prescribed to you every day. Don't skip on the weekends. That's going to throw your body and hormones even more out of whack. Just easy dose it, remember what you are supposed to take every morning, and take that amount and dose every morning... like the dr said. Don't take more because you want to get a boost! You won't get the boost and you'll be disfunctional. Good luck. Don't go through what I went through with the quitting and withdrawls. I had not clue but I was like a bump on a log and very depressed when I quit cold turkey all of a sudden. Not a good thing to do in the middle of a grad school semester like I did. Wait for a break!

[Alliee]

double post, sorry